When we started working on the Humari Kahani section of our online newspaper, we knew that the process of creating content for this segment would be difficult but rewarding. Over the course of the semester, our team has had the pleasure of interviewing some amazing individuals from the Habib community. We got the opportunity to hear some remarkable stories from students and alumni who are doing incredible work and then we shared these stories with the hope that our readers will be inspired to create their own wonderful narratives.
For the final segment of Humari Kahani, we have interviewed our incredible professor who encouraged us to create meaningful content and to find extraordinary stories in ordinary circumstances. Zuha Siddiqui, who graduated from LUMS with a bachelors in Political Science and a minor in English Literature and then studied Masters in Journalism and Near Eastern Studies from NYU for two years, is currently teaching Intro to Journalism at Habib University and is also an established freelance journalist who has worked for international news outlets such as Vice and Slate.
Amidst Pakistan’s unpredictable political climate and vague frameworks employed in local newsrooms, Zuha Siddiqui shares how her interest in journalism developed and led to an occupational pursuit. She also talks about her experience of working as a freelance journalist in Pakistan and the layered processes she has to go through when reporting on a story. Her advice and incredible experiential insight should be useful for any student hoping to enter the field of journalism in Pakistan.
“I was always interested in journalism. When I was in high school, I revived the journalism society; I was 16 at the time. My foray into journalism took place in 2011 when I interned for Dawn.com. I worked with Musadiq Sanwal who was the first editor of Dawn.com. He was incredible - Dawn had brought him over from BBC and he launched the website.”
“He really saw something in me, he saw that I was curious and passionate about writing. He pushed me into the field and I wrote four features for Dawn that summer. When I think about it now, an editor would never let a 16-year-old write features. I was paid for every story I wrote. I used to pitch him ideas. One idea that I pitched was about the Somali piracy scare and he asked me to take the lead. He passed away in 2014 and he never got to see me turn journalism into a full-time occupation.”
Dawn.com is not the only local news outlet Zuha has worked with. She has also interned at popular local news entities such as Tribune and Herald. However, apart from the incredible experiences gained from these internships, Zuha decided to work as a freelance journalist instead of working full-time in a local newsroom. This is the decision often made by Pakistani journalists who find that Pakistan’s journalism industry is severely lacking in content and value for labor. In fact, censorship and limited interests act as major hindrances for journalists in the newsroom. However, Zuha has been making the most of her experience as a freelancer in Pakistan, especially with the pandemic looming over like an ominous shadow.
“Working as a freelancer in Pakistan is really hard. There are good days and there are bad days. I started freelancing full-time last year; before that, I used to write pieces on and off. My experience of freelancing in Pakistan has been clouded by the pandemic. I started in March last year and one of the consequences of the pandemic was a global reduction in newsroom budget and interests. American newsrooms were no longer interested in stories from Pakistan and the global South. But it is getting better now and I see an uptick in the number of editors who want to work with me.”
“You need to have good friends who can keep you grounded and a good support system. Freelance work can keep you very isolated because you are essentially on your own. You don’t have co-workers or a workplace - you need to learn to discipline yourself.”
While freelance work is difficult, especially during a pandemic, it can also limit the way journalists report their stories. Zuha shares how she reported on stories during the pandemic and the process she follows to ensure reliable reporting. “I spoke to a health worker from Mardan for a story and the interview took place over the phone. I worked on a story about TikTok dancers for The Juggernaut and I did everything on the phone. I had to ask my sources to send me videos of themselves that I could describe. I did a story on health care workers in the pandemic and the reporting for that was also all remote.”
“I don’t do pre-reporting anymore. I just do lots of research. I see how other news outlets have covered the story, explore different angles and once I come up with an idea, I pitch it to an editor and see what they say. If they green-light it, I start reporting on it. That is what my process is like now. What I also do is apply for reporting grants. I was given a reporting grant in 2019 from the South Asian Journalism Association that looked at indigenous resistance movements in Pakistan. The reporting grant covers your reporting costs, provides you support, and helps you reach out to editors. It’s like a research grant. They really help as well. These are things I have started doing now but initially, when I started freelancing, I used to report first, have two or three sources ready, and then reach out to editors. I was trying to build legitimacy for myself and trying to prove to editors that I was a reliable reporter to work with. Essentially, freelancing is familiarizing yourself with on-ground situations and pitching a story without pre-reporting but also creating a portfolio for myself, so that editors know that they can trust you. It is a layered process.”
“There are certain topics that I’m interested in. I focus quite a bit on gender, human rights, and social movements. But I am shifting my focus towards the environment and technology. I am working on a tech story right now. The reason why I am shifting my focus is that these areas are severely under-reported in Pakistan. The environment is an area of pressing concern and gender ties into that because usually women are affected by climate change to a greater extent.”
Zuha’s time in Pakistani newsrooms has also revealed interesting insight into the notion that journalism is a male-dominated industry in Pakistan. In fact, according to her experiences, the newsroom is often comprised mostly of women. However, on-field work tends to be a bit more prejudiced. “Reporting on the field is a different thing altogether. It is difficult on the field because you come across a lot of sources who don’t take you seriously or see you as a kid. I was working on a story about the heatwave in Karachi and almost all of my sources were men and every single one of them asked: “Apko iss kay baaray mein kuch pata hai?”. That tends to happen when sources think you are an idiot.”
Despite the numerous problems currently plaguing the journalism industry in Pakistan, Zuha is determined to find sustainable and meaningful solutions which can allow the industry to overcome some of its crucial flaws. For her, teaching students about the ethical practices in journalism and giving them powerful journalistic pieces to read and comprehend could ensure that the future of journalism is in the hands of journalists who understand the value of their job and strive for reliability and creativity in their reporting.
“One way to fix things is to train younger people and give them basic ethical principles and make them read good stories and show them what potential lies in Pakistan. I feel like there are so many stories in Pakistan that need to be explored, written, and worked on. And I am not talking about the conventional war-torn stories, there are incredible pieces about music, culture, arts, and ethnic groups present in Pakistan and nobody is working on them because people think they are not interesting or important enough. And then journalists like me pick up these stories for foreign news outlets but Pakistanis don’t get to read them. One way to overhaul the existing system is to introduce young people to good writing and good journalism and show them what they are capable of.”
That is precisely what I have felt while taking this course and I am sure my classmates will agree. The stories that we have read in class really challenged the boundaries of conventional journalism and allowed all of us to recognize the potential and power that is present in good, credible journalism. I believe all of us can collectively agree that the course allowed us to be critical about the news we consume and to take on a more active role when engaging with journalistic pieces.
Zuha Siddiqui’s extensive experience with journalism definitely helped shape the outline of the course and allowed us to connect with each other as we struggled to release new content every week. It was difficult, but it was worth it.
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